Ted Cruz for Prez?

Ted Cruz via National Review

Supposedly, Texas' highest-ranking, and second nuttiest (still behind Gohmert Pyle) true wingnut, is eying a presidential run in 2016.

Oh, I think this surprises none of us. But, to get the "imprimatur" of an official write-up in National Review means it's kind of serious. Semi-breathless, if you will.

That includes the seriousness and depth within the write-up.

It's clear that NR itself takes this seriously:

Republican power brokers from the early-primary states have noticed. They tell me that the Cruz factor is a frequent topic of discussion among state-based strategists.

“You bet, he’s on my radar,” says Chad Connelly, the chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party. “Conservatives think he’s a rock star. I hear about him from everybody.”

Cruz’s allies whisper that the 42-year-old attorney, who holds degrees from Harvard Law and Princeton, doesn’t take the groundswell of enthusiasm lightly. Besides talking with conservative grandees, he has called his peers in the legal community and raised the prospect.

“We all see a path, and he does, too,” says a former Cruz colleague. “This isn’t someone who needs to be told the obvious. He didn’t run for the Senate to get cozy, so no one who knows him is surprised that he’s at least looking at it.”

Oh, boy.

Now, despite some GOPers seeing him as Barry Goldwater and loving that, others have to be seeing him as Barry Goldwater and seeing "39 percent." True, four years later, Tricky Dick had the GOP back in the White House. Of course that was in part by arguably committing treason over Vietnam peace talks, but that's another story.

That said, should the Tweedledum party, then, rejoice on that second half of the split and hope for a Cruz dogfight within the GOP? Possibly, but not necessarily.

Instead, it should worry about getting an actual liberal presidential candidate who will defend liberal values. You might actually get a Green voter like me interested.

If not, if Dems slide further right, then grassroots Democrats should worry indeed about Ted Cruz.